JP6561952B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to control when an image of a document is not read normally.

  As is well known, an image forming apparatus sequentially pulls out a plurality of documents from a tray, sequentially reads an image of these documents, and sequentially records and outputs the images of these documents on respective recording sheets. Some include an image forming unit (see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

US Patent Publication No. 4,099,955 (A) European Patent Publication No. 2642739 (A1)

  By the way, when a plurality of originals are sequentially pulled out from the tray and read as described above, if the corners or the like of the originals are folded, the corners of the read originals may be lost. The image of the original with the corners missing is recorded on the recording paper. For this reason, after recording each original on the respective recording paper, each recording paper is checked, and when the original image recorded on the recording paper is missing, this original is extracted and the original image is recorded. It was necessary to perform reading and recording again, which necessitated complicated operations and wasted recording paper. Further, even when a folded original is read, the original image obtained by reading may not adversely affect image formation and data storage.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and only when a corner portion or the like of a document is folded back and a document image obtained by document reading is missing, the document is only necessary when the restriction is really necessary. It is intended to prohibit image storage or image formation.

  An image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes an image reading unit that sequentially reads images of a plurality of documents, and an image forming unit that forms each document image of the plurality of documents read by the image reading unit on a recording sheet. And detecting each edge of the document image based on each document image obtained by reading the document by the image reading unit, and detecting an effective area that is an area where image formation is performed on the document image. When the presence or absence of an inclined side at the corner of the effective area detected by the area detecting unit and the effective area detecting unit is detected and the inclined side is detected, is the inclined side present in the effective area? A determination unit configured to determine whether or not an inclined side does not exist within the effective area by the determination unit, the document image is stored, or the document image is formed by the image forming unit. A control unit that prohibits storage of the document image or image formation of the document image by the image forming unit when the determination unit determines that an inclined side is present in the effective area. Is.

  According to the present invention, when a corner portion of a document is folded and a document image obtained by reading a document is missing, the storage of the document image or the image formation is prohibited only when the restriction is really necessary. can do.

1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an image reading unit in the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a document read by an image reading unit. (A), (b), (c) is a top view which shows the state by which the corner | angular part of the original document was folded by the back surface side which cannot read this original document. (A), (b), (c) is a top view which shows the state by which the corner | angular part of the original document was folded in the surface side by which this original document is read. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure performed by the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an operation unit and a display unit in the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating five originals read by an image reading unit and respective recording sheets on which images of the originals are recorded. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating recording sheets on which five originals read by an image reading unit and images of three originals are recorded.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is an MFP (multifunction machine) having a plurality of functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. The image forming apparatus 1 includes an image reading unit 11 and an image forming unit 12.

  The image reading unit 11 includes a scanner that optically reads a document, and generates image data indicating an image of the document.

  The image forming unit 12 prints an image indicated by the image data generated by the image reading unit 11 on a recording sheet. The image forming unit 13M for magenta, the image forming unit 13C for cyan, and the image for yellow A forming unit 13Y and an image forming unit 13Bk for black are provided. In each of the image forming units 13M, 13C, 13Y, and 13Bk, the surface of the photosensitive drum 14 is uniformly charged, the surface of the photosensitive drum 14 is exposed, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 14. The electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 14 is developed into a toner image, and the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 14 is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 15. As a result, a color toner image (image) is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 15. This color toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer belt 15 onto the recording paper and thermally fixed onto the recording paper.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a mechanical configuration of the image reading unit 11 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the image reading unit 11 includes a document feeding unit 20 and a scanner unit 30. In the document feeding unit 20, a plurality of documents M set on the document feeding tray 21 are pulled out one by one by the pickup roller 22, the transport roller 23, and the paper discharge roller 24, and transported through the platen glass 31. Further, the document M is discharged to the document discharge tray 25. In the scanner unit 30, the light from the light source 32 </ b> A of the carriage 32 is irradiated onto the original M through the platen glass 31, and the light reflected by the original M is reflected by the mirror 32 </ b> C of the carriage 32. Further, this light is reflected by the mirror 33 A and the mirror 33 B of the optical system unit 33 and enters the CCD sensor 35 through the condenser lens 34. At this time, the condenser lens 34 forms an image of the original M on the light receiving surface of the CCD sensor 35, and the CCD sensor 35 reads the image of the original M.

  FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the main internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a control unit 41, a display unit 42, an image memory 43, an operation unit 44, a touch panel 45, an image reading unit 11, an image forming unit 12, and a storage unit. 46.

  The display unit 42 includes a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, or the like.

  A touch panel 45 is disposed on the screen of the display unit 42. The touch panel 45 is a so-called resistive film type or capacitive type touch panel, and detects a touch (touch) of the user's finger or the like with the touch position along with the touch position, and a detection signal indicating the coordinates of the touch position. Is output to an operation receiving unit 52 described later of the control unit 41. Accordingly, the touch panel 45 serves as an operation unit to which a user operation on the screen of the display unit 42 is input.

  The image memory 43 temporarily stores image data of a document read by the image reading unit 11.

  The operation unit 44 includes hard keys such as an enter key and a start key.

  The storage unit 46 is a large-capacity storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive).

  The control unit 41 includes a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The processor is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), MPU, ASIC, or the like. The control unit 41 includes a control unit 51, an operation receiving unit 52, a display control unit 53, an image processing unit 54, an effective area, when the program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 46 is executed by the processor. It functions as the detection unit 55 and the determination unit 56. In addition, each said structure of the control unit 41 may be comprised by a hard circuit, respectively, not based on the operation based on a program.

  The control unit 51 governs overall operation control of the image forming apparatus 1.

  The operation reception unit 52 has a function of receiving a user operation on the touch panel 45 based on a detection signal output from the touch panel 45. The operation receiving unit 52 also has a function of receiving user operations on the hard keys of the operation unit 44.

  The display control unit 53 controls the display unit 42 to display a setting item input screen, an information input screen, or an operation guidance for the image forming apparatus 1 necessary for the image forming process.

  The image processing unit 54 performs various image processing on the image data in the image memory 43.

  The effective area detection unit 55 detects each edge (described later) of the document image based on each document image obtained by reading the document by the image reading unit 11, and also performs an area formation on the document image. An effective area (described later) is detected.

  The determination unit 56 detects the presence or absence of an inclined side (described later) at the corner of the effective region detected by the effective region detection unit 55, and when the inclined side is detected, the inclined side exists in the effective region. It is determined whether or not.

  Further, when the determination unit 56 determines that the inclined side does not exist in the effective area, the control unit 51 stores the document image in a storage device such as an HDD or forms an image of the document image by the image forming unit 12. To do. Further, when the determination unit 56 determines that the inclined side exists in the effective area, the control unit 51 prohibits the storage of the document image or the image formation of the document image by the image forming unit 12.

  Here, in the image reading unit 11, when a plurality of documents M are set on the document feed tray 21, the documents M on the document feed tray 21 are pulled out one by one, and images on the document M are sequentially read. Each time, the document image im of the document M obtained by the reading is stored in the image memory 43. The image forming unit 12 sequentially forms the original image im in the image memory 43 on a recording sheet. As a result, a plurality of documents M are sequentially read, and each document image im is sequentially formed on each recording sheet.

  At this time, since the image reading unit 11 may be able to read the image of the original M even when the corners of the original M to be read are folded, the original image of each original M obtained by reading may be read. The corner of im may be missing. Therefore, in this embodiment, every time the document M is read by the image reading unit 11, it is determined whether or not the document image im obtained by the reading is missing, and the document image im is missing. When it is determined that the effective area S described later is missing, the image forming unit 12 prohibits image formation of the document image im, prohibits image formation of the document image im, and / or prohibits image formation. The page number of the original document M is displayed on the display unit 42. For this reason, for example, the user can save time and effort to check whether or not an image formed on the recording paper is missing and waste of the recording paper.

  Next, reading of the original M and determination of whether or not the original image im obtained by the reading is missing will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the document M. FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the document M is a rectangular sheet on which images such as text, graphics, and photographs are recorded. Since the document image im obtained by reading the document M also appears in the same shape as the document M, FIG. 4 shows both the document M and the document image im (FIGS. 5 and 6 are also the same). ).

  The image reading unit 11 reads the document M and stores the document image im obtained by the reading in the image memory 43. Then, the effective area detection unit 55 detects the edge of the document image im, that is, the four sides forming the outline of the document image im, using known edge detection processing or the like for the document image im. Further, based on the detected four sides, the effective area detection unit 55 is parallel to each side at a position that is a predetermined distance (for example, 5 mm) from each side forming the four sides in the document image im. An effective area S that is a rectangular area surrounded by a straight line is detected, and coordinates in the document image im indicating the effective area S are stored.

  The control unit 51 causes the image forming unit 12 to form an image of the effective area S of the document M on recording paper.

  For example, the effective area detection unit 55 uses two end sides ma along the sub-scanning direction Y and two end sides mb along the main scanning direction X orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction Y of each end side as a document. Assume that the four sides forming the contour of the image im are detected. Then, the effective area detection unit 55 converts the rectangular area that is separated from the rectangular area formed by the two end sides ma and the two end sides mb (four sides) of the document image im to the inside of the document image im. It is assumed that the effective area S.

  Here, for example, as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C, the corner portion of the document M to be read may be folded to the back side where the document M cannot be read. In this case, the document image im obtained by reading the document M includes not only the two end sides ma and the two end sides mb (four sides) but also the end side ma and the end side mb. An inclined side mc that is inclined is formed. For example, the determination unit 56 detects a corner formed by the intersection of the edge ma and the edge mb based on the document image im (the image showing the edge ma and the image showing the edge mb are 90 degrees or Detect if they intersect at an angle close to that). And when the said corner | angular part (intersection) does not exist, the determination part 56 is an image which shows the straight line which is neither an end side ma nor the end side mb, Comprising: The image which shows the end side ma and the end side mb An image that intersects both is detected as the inclined side mc. Since the shadow mc is also shadowed along the inclined side mc by the illumination of the light source 32A of the carriage 32, the determination unit 56 performs the document detection based on the document image im, for example, by the edge detection process or the like. A linear boundary where the density difference between the inside and outside of the outer edge of the image im is equal to or greater than a threshold value is detected as the inclined side mc.

  Subsequently, the determination unit 56 determines whether or not the detected inclined side mc overlaps the effective area S of the document image im. That is, the determination unit 56 determines whether or not an image indicating the inclined side mc exists in the coordinate area indicating the effective area S in the document image im. For example, as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C, when the corner of the document image im is bent toward the back side of the document M, the determination unit 56 is inclined from the document image im. Although the side mc is detected, in the case as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, it is determined that the inclined side mc does not overlap the effective area S of the document M, and FIG. ), It is determined that the inclined side mc overlaps the effective area S of the document M.

  Next, FIGS. 6A, 6 </ b> B, and 6 </ b> C illustrate a state in which the corner portion of the document M is folded back to the front side where the document M is read. In this case as well, the original image im obtained by reading the original M is not limited to the two end sides ma and the two end sides mb (four sides), but to either the sub-scanning direction Y or the main scanning direction X. An inclined side mc that is also inclined is formed. Further, a triangular piece portion md is formed in which a corner portion of the document M is folded back to the front side with an inclined side mc, and two inclined sides me and mf of the triangular piece portion md appear on the front side. As for these inclined sides mc, me, and mf, shadows are generated along the inclined sides mc, me, and mf by the illumination of the light source 32A of the carriage 32. Therefore, the determination unit 56 determines each of the inclined sides mc, me, and mf based on the original image im. The inclined sides mc, me, and mf can be detected. The determination unit 56 determines whether or not there is an image indicating each of the inclined sides mc, me, and mf in the coordinate area indicating the effective area S in the document image im. If the determination unit 56 determines that at least one image indicating each of the inclined sides mc, me, and mf exists in the coordinate area indicating the effective area S in the document image im, the image of the effective area S is missing. It is determined that

  For example, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, when the triangular piece portion md does not overlap the effective area S of the original M, the determination unit 56 makes each inclination within the coordinate area of the effective area S in the original image im. Since it is determined that none of the images indicating the sides mc, me, and mf exist, it is determined that the image of the effective area S is not missing.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 6C, the triangular piece portion md overlaps the effective area S of the document image im, and an image showing one of the two inclined sides me and mf of the triangular piece portion md, here, the inclined side mf. Is present in the coordinate area of the effective area S (for example, when the image showing the inclined side mf intersects the outer edge of the effective area S and there are two intersecting points q). 56 determines that the image of the effective area S is missing.

  As described above, the determination unit 56 determines whether or not the image of the effective area S of the document image im is missing. When the determination unit 56 determines that the image of the effective area S of the document image im is missing, the control unit 51 prohibits the image forming unit 12 from recording the image, and records the image. The display unit 42 displays the prohibition.

  Next, it is determined whether or not the image of the effective area S in the document image im is missing. If it is determined that this image is missing, image formation of the document image im is prohibited, and this is displayed. The processing procedure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the user sets a plurality of documents M on the document feed tray 21. At this time, the control unit 51 causes the display unit 42 to display a display screen showing a plurality of touch keys 61a to 61h associated with the respective functions as shown in FIG. The user touches the touch key 61h for accepting an auto-skip execution instruction for prohibiting image formation of the document image im when the image of the effective area S in the document image im is missing, and the touch panel 45 performs the operation. When the touch operation is accepted, an instruction to execute auto skip is accepted by the operation accepting unit 52.

  Here, when the user does not touch the touch key 61h, that is, when the auto skip function is not selected (NO in S101), the user operates the start key of the operation unit 44 to input a document reading instruction. The operation of the start key is accepted by the operation accepting unit 52, and the control unit 51 causes the image reading unit 11 to read a plurality of documents M on the document feed tray 21, and the image forming unit 12 obtains the reading by the reading. The image forming unit 12 is caused to form an image of the original document image (S102).

  That is, in the image reading unit 11, the originals M on the original feed tray 21 are pulled out one by one, and the originals M are sequentially read, and image data indicating the entire image of the scan region R is imaged each time. The original image im of the original M is stored in the memory 43 and stored in the image memory 43. The control unit 51 reads the document image im from the image memory 43 and causes the image forming unit 12 to form an image of the effective area S in the document image im on a recording sheet.

  Further, when the user inputs an auto skip execution instruction (YES in S101) and this touch operation is received by the operation reception unit 52, the control unit 51 starts execution of auto skip shown in and after S104. In this case, the control unit 51 first causes the image reading unit 11 to pull out the originals M on the original feed tray 21 one by one and sequentially read the originals M (S104). Thus, every time one original is read, the original image im is stored in the image memory 43. The control unit 51 stores the page number of the document together with each document image im obtained by the reading.

  Then, the effective area detection unit 55 detects each of the above-described edges based on each document image im of each document M, and detects the effective area S (S105).

  Subsequently, the determination unit 56 determines whether or not the document image im has the inclined side (S106). At this time, if the determination unit 56 determines that the inclined side is not detected in the document image im (NO in S106), the effective area S in the document image im is read without omission. Therefore, the control unit 51 reads the image of the effective area S portion of the document image im from the image memory 43, and causes the image forming unit 12 to perform image formation on the recording paper based on the image of the effective area S portion (see FIG. S107).

  In addition, when the determination unit 56 determines that the inclined side is detected in the document image im (YES in S106), one of the inclined sides mc, me, and mf is detected. Therefore, the determination unit 56 determines whether or not the image of the effective area S is missing, that is, whether or not an image indicating the inclined side exists in the effective area S in the document image im ( S108).

  When the determination unit 56 determines that the image indicating the inclined side does not exist in the effective area S (NO in S108), the control area 51 does not lack the effective area S in the document image im. Since the entire area has been read, the control unit 51 reads the image of the effective area S portion of the document image im from the image memory 43 and performs image formation based on the image of the effective area S portion. To the recording paper (S107).

  If the determination unit 56 determines that an image indicating the inclined side exists in the effective area S (YES in S108), the control unit 51 determines that the image of the effective area S portion in the document M is Since the image has not been read normally, the image forming process (S107) is not performed, and the page number of the document image im determined that the image in the effective area S is missing is stored (S109).

  That is, when the inclined side is not detected in the document image im and the effective area S in the document image im is not missing (NO in S106), for example, FIGS. 5 (a) (b) and 6 (a) (b) ), When any one of the inclined sides mc, me, and mf is detected but the effective area S in the original image im is not missing (YES in S106, NO in S108), the effective area in the original image im The S image is recorded on the recording paper.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 5C and 6C, when any one of the inclined sides mc, me, and mf is detected and the effective area S in the document image im is missing, the document image im An image of the effective area S is not formed.

  Thereafter, when it is detected by the unillustrated document detection sensor that the document M remains on the document feed tray 21 (YES in S110), the control unit 51 performs the process from S104 onward for the next document M. Repeat the process.

  On the other hand, when the document M is not detected on the document feed tray 21 by the document detection sensor (NO in S110), the display control unit 53 normally copies all the documents M on the document feed tray 21. It is displayed on the display part 42 whether it was completed. For example, when the image formation of all the documents M on the document feed tray 21 has not been completed normally, the control unit 51 indicates that the copying of all the documents M has not been completed normally and / or The page number of the document image im stored in S109, that is, the page number of the document M is displayed on the display unit 42 (S111).

  As a result, the user can know whether or not copying of all the documents M on the document feed tray 21 has been normally completed by viewing the display content of the display unit 42. Further, when copying of all the originals M is not normally completed, the user can know the page number of the original M that has not been recorded on the recording paper. For example, the user can extract only the document M in which the folding has occurred, arrange the document M so as to eliminate the folding of the document M, and then set the document M again on the document feeding tray 21. As a result, only the document M in which the image formation of the effective area S in the document image im is not normally performed, that is, only the document M that truly needs to be corrected for folding is extracted, and the document M is read by the image reading unit 11. Since the reading can be performed again, the image formation of all the originals M can be normally completed by the re-reading.

  In the above embodiment, for example, as shown in FIG. 9, when none of the five originals Ma to Me set on the original feed tray 21 is folded, the effective area S of each original Ma to Me is set. Five recording papers Pa to Pe on which images are formed are discharged from the image forming apparatus 1.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 10, when five originals Ma to Me are set on the original feed tray 21 and the first original Ma is not folded, an image of the effective area S of the original Ma is recorded. One sheet of recording paper Pa is discharged from the image forming apparatus 1. Further, since the second original Mb and the fifth original Me are not folded, the effective area S of the original M is not missing even if the aliasing occurs. Therefore, the effective area S in the original image im of each original Mb and Me. The two recording papers Pb and Pe on which the image is recorded are discharged from the image forming apparatus 1.

  Further, since the third document Mc and the fourth document Md are folded and the effective area S of the original image im is missing, the effective area in the original image im of each original Mc, Md. The image of S is not formed. In this case, the user confirms the page number of the document M displayed on the display unit 42 in which image formation has not been completed normally, arranges the wrapping of each document Mc, Md, and then sets each document Mc, Md. Is again set on the document feed tray 21 and the originals Mc and Md are read by the image reading unit 11, so that the copying of the originals Mc and Md can be normally completed. For this reason, the user can save time and effort to check whether or not the image of the document recorded on the recording paper is missing and waste of the recording paper.

  Further, according to the above-described embodiment, when an image formation execution instruction is input from the user to the image forming apparatus 1, the original M to be read is folded and the effective area S is missing. Although the control unit 51 does not allow the image forming of the M original image im to be performed, when the original reading instruction is input from the user to the image forming apparatus 1, the original M to be read is folded. If the effective area S is missing, the control unit 51 may not store the document image im of the document M in a storage device such as an HDD.

  According to the above-described embodiment, when the document M to be read is folded, control is not performed for all image formation or image storage, but the effective area S in the document image im is missing. Therefore, only when the document image is im, the image formation or image storage is not performed. Therefore, the image formation or image storage is performed for the document image im that does not affect the image formation or image storage. For this reason, useless document re-reading at the time of folding can be reduced, and productivity is improved.

  In the above embodiment, when the inclined side mc is in contact with the corner of the effective area S in the document image im as shown in FIG. 5B, and when the triangular piece portion md is 2 as shown in FIG. 6B. When one of the two inclined sides me and mf is in contact with the corner of the effective region S, the determination unit 56 determines that the image of the effective region S is not missing. May determine that the image of the effective area S is missing.

  When the auto skip function is selected, the image processing unit 54 optimizes the density, contrast, resolution, and the like of the document image im read by the image reading unit 11 for detecting each edge of the document M. It doesn't matter.

  Further, prescanning by the image reading unit 11 may be performed to detect each edge of the document M, and then main scanning by the image reading unit 11 may be performed to read an image of the document M. The density, contrast, resolution, and the like of the entire image of the scan region R read by the image reading unit 11 may be varied between scans.

  The configuration and processing described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 10 are only an embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration and processing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 11 Image reading part 12 Image forming part 41 Control unit 42 Display part 43 Image memory 44 Operation part 45 Touch panel 46 Storage part 51 Control part 52 Operation reception part 53 Display control part 54 Image processing part 55 Effective area | region detection part 56 Judgment part

Claims (3)

An image reading unit for sequentially reading images of a plurality of documents;
An image forming unit that forms on the recording paper each original image of the plurality of originals read by the image reading unit;
Based on each document image obtained by reading the document by the image reading unit, each edge of the document image is detected, and an effective area detection that detects an effective area in which image formation is performed in the document image. And
The presence or absence of an inclined side at the corner of the effective area detected by the effective area detection unit is detected, and when the inclined side is detected, it is determined whether or not the inclined side exists in the effective area. A determination unit;
When the determination unit determines that the inclined side does not exist in the effective area, the original image is stored or the original image is formed by the image forming unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: a control unit that prohibits storage of the original image or image formation of the original image by the image forming unit when it is determined that the image exists in the effective area.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the effective area is a rectangular area set inward by a predetermined distance from four sides of the document image. With a display,
When the determination unit determines that an inclined side exists in the effective area, the control unit prohibits storage of the original image or image formation of the original image by the image forming unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is displayed on the display unit.